Engineering, Economics & Coffee

Two Quick Tidbits

1. Dear insurance companies who keep trying to sell HerrTech insurance based upon the fact that we have a mortgage. I make more money than HerrTech. So when you keep sending us letters trying to get him to buy insurance in case something happens so we can keep paying the mortgage, it just reminds me of how utterly sexist and clueless you are. Did you realize there’s this whole other half of the population that makes money and could be insured? I’m just sayin’.

2. Cherish wrote an excellent piece over at Engineer Blogs today about the imaginary STEM labor shortage and how companies are complaining about the lack of qualified applicants because they are too lazy/unwilling to train people as well as hoping they can keep cutting down on market wages for qualified STEM professionals while simultaneously boosting their H1B Visas (who of course also cost less than the prevailing market wage). So go over there and read that.

Might want to take a look at Dr. Michio Kaku’s plea for more H1B “genius” visas at http://bit.ly/uYd5c6. I don’t know whether he’s advocating a 2% or 2000% increase in the number of such visas. Such a policy may be good for corporations, and perhaps the economy-at-large, but it’s certainly not good for all the US students currently being urged into STEM careers—especially if, as Dr. Kaku seems to believe, they are never going to be competitive with foreign students. Also not particularly good news for engineers who find themselves currently unemployed. As you’ve noted before, FrauTech, there seems to be a disconnect between the skills that are required, those that are being asked for, and those that universities are training students to perform.